Well, I have wanted to for about forever, so, I found me a THICK piece of steel, drew out the basic shape I like and cut it out with an angle grinder. Here are some pics of the progression so far. Haven't done any grinding yet other than to knock off the sharp edges from the angle grinder. The first pics are from my phone, sorry about the quality.

CA357

09-06-2010 05:45 AM

Looks good. Big too. ;)

doctherock

09-06-2010 06:01 AM

Thats going to look good.

freefall

09-06-2010 07:44 AM

You have a great start going there. What kind of steel is it? Do you know how to heat treat it? If not, go ahead and grid it to the shape you desire, grind the edge and sharpen it. Then throw it away. Order a piece of good steel from Jantz Supply, Texas Knifemakers, or someplace more specialized. Then grind that to shape,don't sharpen it, and heat treat it according to instruction, or if you don't have the equipment (especially if it's stainless) send it to Paul Bos in El Cajon CA (he does the heat treat for Buck) and tell him what kind of steel it is. It will cost you a few $ but you will have a knife you can be proud of beyond your lifetime.

pandamonium

09-06-2010 06:24 PM

This is a first attempt, I have no idea what kind of steel it is, not that worried about it at this point. My plan is to proceed through the entire making process including heat treating, if it sucks then it sucks. This is a learning process for me and we shall see how it turns out. I will continue to post pics of the progress.

Poink88

09-06-2010 06:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by freefall
(Post 345315)

You have a great start going there. What kind of steel is it? Do you know how to heat treat it? If not, go ahead and grid it to the shape you desire, grind the edge and sharpen it. Then throw it away. Order a piece of good steel from Jantz Supply, Texas Knifemakers, or someplace more specialized. Then grind that to shape,don't sharpen it, and heat treat it according to instruction, or if you don't have the equipment (especially if it's stainless) send it to Paul Bos in El Cajon CA (he does the heat treat for Buck) and tell him what kind of steel it is. It will cost you a few $ but you will have a knife you can be proud of beyond your lifetime.

Man you're cold.

Poink88

09-06-2010 06:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pandamonium
(Post 345472)

This is a first attempt, I have no idea what kind of steel it is, not that worried about it at this point. My plan is to proceed through the entire making process including heat treating, if it sucks then it sucks. This is a learning process for me and we shall see how it turns out. I will continue to post pics of the progress.

Good for you and I commend you for trying to learn. Hope this is the first of many.

freefall

09-06-2010 07:27 PM

That's not cold. I've ground a bunch of knives out of 3/16" cold rolled just for practice and thrown them away. Done a bunch out of wood too. It's not easy to get those edge lines right, and it's a shame to screw up a $20 piece of steel. And it's a shame to put all the finish work into a pice of mild steel that will never get hard no matter what you do to it. I was trying to be a nice guy and doing my usual poor job of it.

rodent.22

09-06-2010 07:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by freefall
(Post 345498)

That's not cold. I've ground a bunch of knives out of 3/16" cold rolled just for practice and thrown them away. Done a bunch out of wood too. It's not easy to get those edge lines right, and it's a shame to screw up a $20 piece of steel. And it's a shame to put all the finish work into a pice of mild steel that will never get hard no matter what you do to it. I was trying to be a nice guy and doing my usual poor job of it.

Excellent advice, if using the knife for actual tasks, but a sticker doesn't really need a hard edge, LOL. I'm taking your advice when I make my next push dagger. Thanks!:)